Keeping The Troops In Line

This is a story about about a Republican Mayor who ran afoul of the guys in charge. The guys in charge apparently don’t like disloyalty, and they let this mayor know it.

Randy George is the Republican Mayor of North Haledon in Passaic County who’s been there for 12 years. The community is not huge, but they deliver Republican votes – about 2500 per election. That ain’t a lot, but it’s a reliable bloc representing roughly 66% percent of the electorate who make sure to get to the polls when asked.

But Mayor George is not in charge of greater Passaic. Assemblyman Scott Rumana is. This is the second story I’ve heard recently about Rumana possessing superpowers. I even hear he can shoot laser beams from his eyes ( not really ). Well, insiders tell me Mayor George did not support Rumana for Passaic Repub. Chairman because he felt Rumana was a dual office holder with the Assembly seat. Rumana didn’t like that. There are a whole host of other complicated local reasons why these two are at loggerheads, but suffice to say nothing is more heart breaking ( that’s right, nothing! ) than Republican on Republican violence, particularly in a county surrounded by dreaded Democrats. BTW – Democrats cannibalize each other all the time, so it’s less of a novelty when they fight amongst themselves.

Anyway, George was apparently unhappy that he has been a loyal Republican all these years only to have the big guys mess with him now so he made these comments to the newspaper about state aid cuts to North Haledon. He mentions that a certain Republican Governor needs to “calm down.”

Well, those comments were clearly spotted by Either Rumana, or someone else who steam-piped them up the chain. George gets a call the other day from Frank Luna who works in that certain Republican’s office in Trenton. I’ll give you hint: his name rhymes with “Shmris Shmristie.”

Anyway, George gets read the riot act about how he is “not a team player.” The mayor was reportedly a bit stunned, finding both the tone and tenor of his conversation with Luna to be disrespectful. But more than that, insiders say he doesn’t understand why he is feeling the wrath of the party, when he is a key element of that party’s base. One of those guys who greases the wheels and tilts the advantage “R” when it’s really needed.

The party apparatus at the local level is key. And when the Governor comes in with a mandate to make things run smoothly, they cannot afford insubordination in the ranks. But then again, this is not the military. Disagreements can be healthy. And of course, all politics is local ( sorry, I hate ending things with cheesy cliche’s ).